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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 825950" data-attributes="member: 3146">It's a good feat. I'm undecided on whether ES: Sonic is unbalanced and I think there's a difference between wizard and sorceror characters with regard to this.For a sorceror, ES: Sonic is not a really big deal. Granted, it offers him a way around nearly all energy immunities and resistances but a good selection of fire, cold, and electricity spells (maybe fireball, cone of cold, and Chain Lightning or Chain Lightning, Firebrand, and Icy Burst) along with ES: acid would do that as well. Alternately, a sorceror could focus on fire or cold spells and use the opposite ES feat to gain double damage against most elemental foes. That's probably just as advantageous a route for a sorceror to take.A wizard, on the other hand is a different kettle of fish. Since he's unable to spontaneously apply metamagic feats, he can't use ES: Fire or ES: cold to always have a double damage elemental type available to him. ES is only useful to him in a few situations:1. It enables him to take advantage of DC boosting feats (Bloodline of Fire) or abilities (Elemental Savant's elemental focus)2. He has advance knowledge of what he will be fighting and can prepare accordingly.3. He selects ES: sonic because nearly nothing is immune to it so he can prepare all his spells as sonics on the assumption that, seven times out of ten it will be as good as normal spells, and 2.9 times out of ten it will be better. (For the .1 times out of 10 that he's facing a bard, destrachan, or Formian...oh well, there's still Magic Missile).The last reason is applicable to all wizards and most situations and it's why most wizards who take ES select ES: Sonic rather than one of the others.Is that cheesy or unbalanced? Maybe. It's just as easy to actively defend against (with spells, for instance) as other elements--in fact, it's easier for two reasons (1. There's a very good argument that Silence stops ALL sonic spells and 2. Odds are good that a wizard with sonics has nothing BUT sonics; wizards with fire spells often have some cold and electricity as well). Also, there's very little that sonic damage deals double damage to (unlike ES: Fire or cold for instance). On the other hand, it does bypass passive resistances quite nicely--and passive resistance is far more common than active resistance. I guess that whether the ES: Sonic is unbalanced or not will depend on how much the DM relies upon passive elemental resistance to protect his bad guys.</blockquote>

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